Snowless Christmas?

2015-12-21 17:44:51.000 – Adam Gill, Summit Intern

Many places in New England will not experience a white Christmas this year, including the summit. We have an unusually warm air mass moving in mid-week that will cause the temperatures to get well above average. Temperatures for much of the east will see record highs on Christmas Eve with temperatures even getting into the mid 60s for areas along the coast! Up on the summit we are expecting temperatures to get into the upper 40s which could topple our all-time record high of 47 for the month of December! Dew points will also be well above freezing which accelerates snow melt due to the moisture in the atmosphere condensing to the snow. Temperatures will be above freezing even through the night and with the little snow that we do have, it will not take very long for the snow to all melt. There will be plenty of rain across all of New England as well so there is little hope for snow making it all the way to Christmas.

The map below shows the 850mb level of the atmosphere (roughly 5,000 feet) forecast temperatures. There is a swath of temperatures that are at 14-16^oC which is 57-60 degrees Fahrenheit. At this time of the year, the temperature at that level should be around 30 degrees so this is almost 30 degrees above average!

 

If you are wondering where all the cold air is, it’s bottled to the north and in Alaska. The only places in the US that are experiencing below average temperatures are in the Southwest. The dark orange is roughly 30^oF above average while the pink is 30^oF below average. The swath of above average temperatures in the Great lakes region will be moving over the North East in a few days.

 

Adam Gill, Summit Intern